GKB North of the Border

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GKB North of the Border: When your heritage as a machinery manufacturer and dealer dates back to 1816 you expect nothing less than the best. The Groundcare Division of Thomas Sherriff, which began in 1986, is based in East Lothian and with a further six branches provides comprehensive sales, parts and service support for commercial, agricultural and consumer equipment. The company has now become an official GKB Machines dealer, taking delivery of the first three machines, a Combiseeder, Sandfilller and SP100 Sandspreader.

Sherriff’s had seen GKB products at a number of events and were impressed with the build quality but needed to see how they performed. “When we met GKB they came across as a forward-thinking company,” says Thomas Sherriff’s Groundcare Manager, Richard Scott, “and with a background in contracting and maintenance they have an exceptional insight into what groundsmen and greenkeepers need from products for maintaining sports turf and golf courses.” Thomas Sherriff arranged with GKB’s Operations Manager, Tom Shinkins, a series of product demonstrations for customers locally where the three machines were put through their paces.

GKB North of the Border

The GKB Combiseeder was developed to meet market demand for a fast, efficient way of seeding and surface aerating with virtually no surface disturbance. The Sandfiller provides a fast solution to drainage with economic and environmentally friendly intensive aeration and sand filling in a one-pass action. The SP100 Sandspreader is a top dresser that conveniently mounts onto a turf truck such as the ProGator, Truckster or Workman.

“Seeing these machines in action the results were obvious and the quality exceptional,” says Richard, “from the day Tom came and met us we have all got on well and he’s always there with support should we need it. We’re very pleased to be selling the product as GKB dealers.”

For more information, visit: www.gkbmachines.com

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Bothams Renovate With Koro FTM

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Bothams Renovate With Koro FTM: Bothams Prestige Sports Turf & Amenity,  a long-term Campey Turf Care Systems customer has refined their renovations with the new and improved Koro FTM 2000.

The Yorkshire company has been buying Campey’s products for 15 years and in that time, they have seen consistent upgrades to machines that maintain their status as the most innovative on the market, with the Koro FTM and new UNIVERSE patented rotor the perfect example.

Bothams Renovate With Koro FTM

The new two metre machine provides the cleanest Universe® fraise mow possible with the enhanced rotor through a number of improvements, and the co-owner of Bothams Prestige, Josh Botham, has praised Campey and Imants for listening to their customers.

“Campey listen to the contractors/customers and improve the machines year on year and that’s why we always buy new machines from them,” Josh said.

“The improvements to the new Koro are massive. It’s so much cleaner and more efficient because of the changes they’ve made to the balance and other areas. The scraper bars on the front and rear roller help prevent any build-up of waste and clean it to 1mm, which helps to keep the operation a lot cleaner. They’ve also angled the conveyor, so it carries the material in a more even way compared to the older model.

“We use the machine with the new Universe rotor for renovating hybrid pitches but it’s so versatile we use it from DESSO GrassMaster to natural pitches for light fraize mowing right up to complete removal.

“Our customers are so much happier when we use the new Koro FTM. Every customer we have done work for this year have commented how much better it is and that’s due to the improvements Campey have made”

The redesign of the KORO FTM was done to make the machine more user-friendly with every aspect of performance analysed. The redistribution of weight means a much smaller tractor can be used to run the Koro FTM, because the centre of gravity has been shifted towards the tractor making it easier to lift. Even when the removeable weight is taken off the machine still has improved balanced against previous models.

Maintaining the new range of machines has also been enhanced to improve working reliability, with the modular set-up allowing the machine to run without belts with a strong state of the art driveline that is maintenance free, something that is important for contractors who often have very tight schedules.

“We got our new Koro  FTM at the end of March 2018 and we’ve already used it on excess of 10 pitches with no issues,” Josh said.

“Being a contractor means that time is of the essence and with football renovations, everybody wants you at the same time. We work seven days a week from 6am until 10pm for at least two months, but we can always rely on Campey’s products to allow us to keep up with the pace.

“You get the aftercare with Campey and that’s what we look for. You can guarantee them to be with you the same day if you hit any problems.”

For more information, visit: www.campeyturfcare.com

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Greenfingers’ New Etesia Fleet

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Greenfingers’ New Etesia Fleet: Based in Midlothian, Scotland, Greenfingers have renewed their fleet of Etesia groundcare equipment by purchasing 14 Pro 46 PHCS pedestrian mowers and a Buffalo 100 BPHP ride-on mower.

Established in 1991, Greenfingers offers professional garden and grounds maintenance and commercial soft landscaping throughout the Lothians, Borders and Fife.

Greenfingers' New Etesia Fleet

The contractor has been relying on a wide range of Etesia equipment for a number of years, and proprietor Jason McCran revealed how it all started.

“I had initially heard of Etesia through press articles in trade magazines – there were always good reviews and people seemed to rate them highly. That was a long time ago now and we’ve been buying the machines for as long as I can remember and every member of the team feels confident using them.”

As part of his fleet renewal, Jason purchased 14 Etesia Pro 46 PHCS pedestrian mowers and a Buffalo 100 BPHP ride-on mower.

Jason’s team use the Buffalo BPHP for the larger green space areas that the company maintains. Featuring a 100cm cutting deck and a 20.5HP diesel Perkins engine, up to 12,000sq.m. of grass can be cut and collected per hour. The efficiency of the unique cutting system allows professionals to work faster and operators see increased productivity as the Buffalo 100 excels when used on wet grass or in the rain. This machine is also fitted with a built-in grass collector with a capacity of 600 litres, and the hydraulic emptying system is controlled from the driver’s seat.

The Etesia Pro 46 PHCS offers extreme versatility with the ability to cut, collect and mulch without the need for an accessory. Built upon the DUOCUT concept of combining 100% collection and 100% mulching decks together, the Pro 46 PHCS delivers high performance without compromising the results of either of the functions. By crushing the grass finely, even if it is long and wet, it excels in its collection abilities. Fitted with a powerful 5HP Honda engine, the PHCS offers low vibrations with ‘soft grip’ handle bars which can fold for easy transportation.

“We predominately use the pedestrian mowers on small grass areas on grounds where we work with property managers, or around sheltered complexes for housing associations,” says Jason. “We find that by using the PHCS, we can govern the speed better because you can cut with it as quick as the operator can move”.

“The majority of our work is cut and collect and the Etesia mowers do this in wet weather better than any other mower that we’ve tried. This is what particularly drew us to them because in Scotland we are prone to rain throughout the summer months. We’ve never had any issues with Etesia equipment; they do the job to an extremely high standard and we have no reason at all to change.”

For further information, please contact Etesia UK on 01295 680120 or visit www.etesia.co.uk

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Toro A Cut Above At Cruden Bay

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Toro A Cut Above At Cruden Bay: The performance of Toro’s Reelmaster 5410-D mowers on the fairways of Cruden Bay Golf Club, the traditional Scottish links course in Aberdeenshire, is preferred over all others.

Course manager, Alister Matheson, comments: “The first thing I noticed about the Reelmaster in the demo was the way it handled the ground. The course at Cruden Bay follows the original lie of the land to great effect and as a result the fairways have a few humps and hollows. This didn’t pose a problem to the RM5410, its quality of cut was by far the best. As a result, we decided to buy two.”

Toro A Cut Above At Cruden Bay

Alister and his team are proud to present their perfect example of firm and fast undulating natural links fairways, back after five years thanks to a particularly dry end to spring. As Toro’s UK distributor Reesink Turfcare’s David Raitt says: “The game originated here in Scotland and this is the way links courses should look at this time of the year. Many foreign golfers, especially Americans, love this set up for links golf because it represents how the sports should be played in the natural environment.”

The grass looks like this when the ground is dry and there is little moisture for the plant so it goes dormant. When enough rain comes, which it undoubtedly will, the grass will come out of dormancy and its familiar green colour will return.

Not that any of this has been a problem for the Reelmasters brought in for the fairways, as Alister confirms: “They can cope with all conditions.” The fact that the RM5410-D is designed with improved operator comfort in mind, did not go unnoticed by Alister either: “This machine is so much nicer to the driver,” he says. Alister’s right: tilt steering, a deluxe suspension seat, improved visibility and lower operating noise, all go a long way to enhancing the operator experience and helping to reduce fatigue.

Alister completed the order by selecting the Multi Pro 5800-D sprayer for the Championship course, which is ranked 24th in the country by the Top 100 Golf Courses, and primarily chose the machine for its increased tank capacity: “We had a tank capacity of 700 litres before, whereas the Multi Pro 5800-D can hold 1136 litres. This will be far more cost effective, and productive to use.” But it was in the demo that Alister realised just how “robust and reliable” the Multi Pro is too, and that sealed the deal.

Alister has a formidable CV with many of the golfing greats on it. Before his ten years at Cruden Bay, he spent five years at one of the best clubs in the world, Royal Dornoch, and before that was at the club that needs no introduction, The Wentworth. However, it could be said that Cruden Bay is the club delivering some of his biggest challenges, due, mainly, to the club’s location.

Alister explains: “Here at Cruden Bay we have true Scottish light and dark seasons. In the summer, we can have up to 21 hours of sunlight a day, in the winter, only seven hours. Plus, the growing season is much reduced here to just five months of the year. We have a sharp easterly wind to deal with and the usual challenges of being a sandy links course; we’ve been known to have sand dunes as high as three-story buildings! And all this against the backdrop of the North Sea.”

But with a team of nine full-timers and a machinery replacement programme which sees machines selected on their individual merit, it’s easily handled by the team and fleet.

So, what’s next for the top Scottish club? Alister is working towards a new Toro irrigation system for installation this winter on the greens, tees and approaches, which will ensure precise irrigation of the course even in its windy, exposed location. Until then, we leave Alister, the team and the club’s members enjoying improved fairways, thanks to Toro.

For more information, visit: reesinkturfcare.co.uk

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Graden CSI Helps St Augustine’s GC

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Graden CSI Helps St Augustine’s GC: At more than 100 years old, Kent’s St Augustine’s Golf Club has changed a lot over the last century and is now far from the grazing land that once occupied its 60 acre site. However, the pop-up greens, on original clay soil, used to cause Head Greenkeeper Gary Kennington and his team a headache when it came to topdressing and drainage. That was until the club discovered the benefits of the Graden Contour Sand Injection (CSI) unit, which has helped to improve water dispersal and greens speed, all with minimum surface disruption.

“Though we’re not strictly a links course, as there’s a road between the club and the Kent coast, we do still have to deal with the climatic challenges our location brings” explains Gary. “One year in particular, going back now 7 years, the weather meant the usual tactic of tining and topdressing wasn’t getting sand down into the greens as well as the team hoped.  At the time the Graden CSI was a relatively new concept in the UK so we hired a unit and quickly realised that it could really help.”

Graden CSI Helps St Augustine’s GC

The Graden CSI is a 3-in-1 verti-cutter with the ability to aerate, scarify and remove thatch to any depth between 1mm-40mm, whilst simultaneously backfilling the grooves with either sand or a combination of sand and seed. Its ability to conduct multiple jobs in one pass reduces play downtime without causing any detrimental effect to the firmness of the ground. “With this CSI you’re getting the sand into the green, rather the putting it on the top, allowing you to get greens back into play in as little as half an hour.”

Gary and his team now use the CSI on all 18 greens twice a year and continue to see marked improvements. “From the very first use we reduced the thatch content of the greens and worked the sand down into the soil profile which helped with drainage and greens speed. With it being a pedestrian unit, we have great manoeuvrability and it means we can still go out and use it in conditions that may not always be ideal. Should we need that little extra advice or support we now have John Fitzpatrick of Charterhouse Turf Machinery who is great to have at the end of the phone.”

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